New Hampshire ratifies (9th state)

On June 21, 1788, the New Hampshire ratifying convention at Concord approved the Constitution by a vote of 57 to 47 after months of delay and adjournment. Federalists such as John Langdon pressed for approval, while many rural delegates had initially hesitated over taxation and the lack of a bill of rights. The final vote made New Hampshire the ninth state to ratify the Constitution.

The New Hampshire convention mattered because it showed that support for the Constitution could be assembled even in a small state where local suspicion of central power remained strong. Delegates demanded amendments and assurances, but they ultimately accepted that the Union needed stronger national institutions than the Articles of Confederation had provided. The close vote also demonstrated that ratification in 1788 still required persuasion rather than inevitability.

New Hampshire's approval satisfied Article VII and allowed the Constitution to go into effect even before Virginia and New York had decided. The convention's demand for amendments also reinforced the later movement in the First Congress to propose the Bill of Rights.